Wedding Planning vs. Wedding Coordination: Two Beautifully Different Kinds of Support

Tis the season for engagements! We see you out there and we’re ready to celebrate you too but first, let’s talk about what level of service you may need and why they’re not quite the same. When you’re preparing for a wedding, you’re not just hosting an event, you’re creating a once-in-a-lifetime experience for yourselves and everyone you love. That level of meaning deserves the right kind of professional support.

Couples often hear the terms planner and coordinator used as if they’re the same service. In reality, they’re thoughtfully different roles, designed to support you at different stages of the journey. Both are valuable. Both are professional. But the scope, time investment, and cost are not interchangeable—and understanding why helps you choose with confidence.

What Full-Service Wedding Planning Includes

A wedding planner is your guide from the very beginning—someone who holds the full vision, the logistics, and the pacing of the entire process with you. Planning is comprehensive and deeply collaborative.

Full-service planning typically includes:

• Shaping and refining your wedding vision and aesthetic

• Building a realistic budget and tracking it throughout the process

• Venue research, touring support, and contract guidance

• Curating, recommending, and managing your vendor team

• Overseeing communication, deadlines, and decision-making

• Designing the flow of the full guest experience

• Creating a detailed master timeline months in advance

• Managing walkthroughs, logistics, and contingency planning

• Leading rehearsal and wedding-day execution

In short: planners don’t just manage tasks—they craft the wedding with you.

What Wedding Coordination Covers

Wedding coordination is a different kind of magic. Coordinators step in closer to your date, often 4–8 weeks out, to bring everything you’ve planned to life with calm precision.

Coordination usually includes:

• Reviewing vendor contracts, timelines, and logistics

• Confirming details and arrival schedules with your vendor team

• Finalizing a wedding-day timeline that’s smooth and realistic

• Running your rehearsal so everyone feels prepared

• Managing the full wedding day quietly and professionally

• Troubleshooting behind the scenes so you stay present

Think of coordination as the seamless hand-off from planning into execution. Coordinators don’t design and build the wedding over months—they ensure the wedding you planned unfolds beautifully.

The Real Difference: Time Invested

One of the clearest ways to understand why these services are priced differently is simply how many hours each requires.

Full-Service Planning: ~150–250 Hours

Across the industry, full-service planners typically invest approximately 150–250 hours per wedding, depending on complexity, guest count, and design scope. That’s months of thoughtful work, steady pacing, and detailed oversight.

Coordination: ~25–40 Hours

Wedding coordinators generally spend about 25–40 hours total, including prep meetings, vendor confirmations, rehearsal leadership, and full wedding-day management.

Why the difference matters

Planning is long-range project leadership. Coordination is short-range execution. Both are high-skill roles but the duration and breadth of responsibility are dramatically different.

Why These Services Aren’t “Better vs. Cheaper”

It can be tempting to think of coordination as “planning-lite,” but that framing doesn’t honor what each service is designed to do.

A planner is there to:

• protect your time over many months

• guide decisions before they become stressful

• shape a cohesive guest experience

• align budget, vendors, design, and logistics early

A coordinator is there to:

• protect your wedding day

• ensure every vendor and detail lands on time

• manage transitions smoothly

• solve problems quietly while you stay in the moment

It’s not about one being “more” than the other. It’s about choosing the support that matches where you are in the process and how you want to feel throughout it.

Which Service Fits You Best?

Coordination is perfect if…

• You’ve planned most details yourself

• Your vendor team is booked and organized

• You want expert support for the final stretch

• Your wedding structure is relatively straightforward

Full-Service Planning is ideal if…

• You want guidance from the very beginning

• You’re building your vendor team from scratch

• Your wedding is higher-complexity (large guest count, layered traditions, multiple locations, weekend itinerary)

• You want a calm, supported planning experience instead of carrying the full mental load

A Gentle Truth at the Heart of It

Your wedding deserves the kind of support that lets you be fully present, whether that means months of steady partnership or a final-stretch professional hand guiding everything into place.

• Planning is a long-term, high-touch experience: ~150–250 hours.

• Coordination is a focused, execution-driven service: ~25–40 hours.

In Seattle, those differences typically translate into:

• $2K–$3.8K for coordination

• $8K–$16K+ for full-service planning

Different services. Different investments. The same goal: a wedding that feels effortless, meaningful, and unmistakably yours.

Ready to chat more about your vision and how we can best help? Fill out our questionnaire here.